Primarily, I'm a representative for Hill's Science Diet pet food. I work for a company that has Hill's as a client and I go to Petco, Petsmart etc... to check on merchandise, sales, help customers, and inform employees about current happenings. I also do plan-o-gram resets, which I'm currently doing for my Petco stores for the next 3 weeks because of the new Science Diet products. It's an okay job, the downside is that I use my own car so I add mileage when I travel in my territory. I do get paid for the mileage but it still takes a toll on my car. It's the closest I'll ever go back to retail though.
Before that I worked for Toys R Us for 8 years until I was laid off in 2008. I wish I kept a journal of the stupidity that I witnessed from customers, employees, management and upper management. It was while working for this company, when started asking myself "what the fuck is wrong with people?" Over the course of the 8 years I had worked at one store and transferred to another store. When the 2nd store closed in 2008, I was told by the district manager that if I wanted to go back to the original store , I could. Everyone else didn't get that offer, not even management. I told him no, because I had enough and took my severance package. Of course I didn't realize that the economy would go to hell and I would be on unemployment, but it was still the best decision.
Now, I don't really deal with the customers too much unless they are directly buying Hill's products or are interested in the product. If customers ask me questions about anything else in the store (because they assume I work there), I just simply tell them I'm not an employee for Petco, Petsmart etc....
I was able to get this job because I knew my boss from a previous job, doing something similar. She had an opening, I was on unemployment looking for work and she asked if I wanted it.